we were looking at the clip earlier of chuck grassley in that hearing. you know, at that point what really happens is some age puts those questions in front of him and he reads they will. it's kabuki theater. everybody knows what everybody is going to say and i guess a point at some point you want to spend your time doing something else. >> joe and howard, you both know max baucus. in fact, he was here recently. if he knows he is leaving, why would he vote no on background checks? >> i don't think he knew he was leaving. he has $5 million war chest. usually you see senator levin, for example, didn't really raise much money. you could telegraph that he wasn't going to run again. i think that, you know, max baucus had a tough moment when he voted what he thought was going to help him in the general election and the problem is in a primary you have a whole different set of issues. >> i do think that after that vote, things became insurmountable and it it would for any democrat really in a primary. >> the vote would hurt them? >> the vote against background